Bank tellers beware! A coin con man may be on a roll, warn North Vancouver RCMP – literally.
The inventive fraudster recently bilked a bank in North Vancouver by cashing in what the teller believed were more than 45 rolls of toonies and leaving significantly lighter, pocketing $2,600 in bills.
When bank staff eventually unrolled the coins, however, they discovered most of the rolls were filled with steel washers, approximately the same size and weight as $2 coins. The only real toonies were those placed at either end of the rolls of coins to fool the teller, said De Jong.
Police are looking for help from the public in identifying the coin con man, whose face was caught on bank surveillance cameras. He was not a regular customer of the bank where he cashed in the fake coins, said De Jong.
Police say it’s not the first time the scam has been pulled off.
But “I’ve never seen it where $2,600 was exchanged,” said De Jong.
Police also warned the circular scam artist may try out the ruse at another bank, having been successful once.
“We do believe he’s on a roll,” said De Jong.
